1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to tennis rackets with improved handles and, more particularly, to improved tennis racket handles of a six-sided cross-sectional configuration with the major faces parallel with the strings and with a soft pallet between a soft external grip and an rigid internal core.
2. Description of the Background Art
Tennis involves players on opposite sides of a net who employ rackets to strike a resilient ball back and forth over the net. The racket has a first end, the head end, with strings which contact the ball. The tennis racket also has an opposite end, the handle end, which is grasped by the player. The handle is designed for player comfort and is provided with flat faces and edges along its length so that the player may index the string end of the racket and know it rotational orientation without having to observe the position of the strings with respect to the handle.
Handles are conventionally fabricated of a rigid frame which extends forwardly in a loop configuration at the head to support the strings. A supplemental member, the pallet, is provided at the handle end of the frame with a leather or leather like grip material spiral wound around the pallet. Earlier racket employed wood frames with wood pallets which were routed to size and shape. Subsequently, molded pallets provided an advantageous method of easily providing several grip sizes for a common sized frame, especially when metal tube frames and, later, when composite tube frames were developed. Molded pallets are normally formed of a cellular polymeric material which is formed over the handle end of the racket frame. The pallet may also be separately formed and slid in place over the frame ends.
The most common form of pallet has eight faces, symmetrically formed with respect to the plane of the strings. Two faces are parallel with respect to the strings and two faces are perpendicularly formed with respect thereto. The conventional pallet, however, is hard and has been found to inadequately absorb shocks and vibrations to the hand of a player using the racket while striking a ball. Additionally, such conventional hard pallets are fabricated of rigid cellular materials and thus tend to crack and chip.
The background art discloses many types of handles and handle pallets for tennis rackets as well as for other types of hand held devices. To illustrate the wide variety of handle and handle pallets designed for use as tennis rackets, consider pending application Ser. Nos. 07/422,722 and 07/422,723 to Janes. Those applications relate to the use of soft material pallets located between a rigid internal core and a soft external grip. Such pallets, however, are formed with the traditional eight sides.
With respect to six sided rackets, consider U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,349,199 to Vulcano and 4,717,152 to Kessler. According to the Vulcano disclosure, the major faces are not parallel with respect to the strings or each other. With respect to Kessler, the entire pallet and grip taper along with the length of the handle.
Other patents of interest but less pertinent than the two prior art references cited above are U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,452,803; 1,523,638, 2,000,306; 3,086,777; 3,528,658; 3,545,756, 3,625,512; 3,633,910; 3,664,668; 3,899,172; 3,901,507; and 4,278,251. Further, foreign patents of interest include Australian patent 19,911 and German patent 2830198.
The background art discloses a wide variety of handles and handle pallets designed for use in a wide variety of devices to perform a wide variety of functions. They are fabricated of a wide variety of materials, natural and synthetic, and are formed by a wide variety of processes. No background art, however, discloses, teaches or suggests a tennis racket with an improved handle as described herein to provide, in one unit, all of the desirable features. All known handles and handle pallets are simply lacking in one regard or another. As illustrated by the background art, efforts are continuously being made in an attempt to improve handles, including racket handles. No prior effort, however, suggests the present inventive combination of component elements arranged and configured as disclosed herein. Prior handles do not provide the benefits attendant with the present invention.
The present invention achieves its purposes, objects and advantages over the prior art through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, through the use of the minimum number of functioning parts, through the utilization of readily available materials and conventional components all with no increase in cost to manufacture.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved pallet positionable on the handle of a rigid tennis racket frame having a bow end with strings and a handle end opposite therefrom, the pallet being formed with an external cross-sectional configuration having six flat faces and edges extending along a majority of its length, the pallet being fabricated of a dense soft urethane having a durometer of about between 50 and 80 on a Shore A hardness scale.
It is a further object of the present invention to absorb shocks and vibrations to the user of a tennis racket during the striking of the ball.
It is a further object of the present invention to increase the mechanical advantage of a tennis racket.
It is a further object of the present invention to increase the ability of users to index a tennis racket during play without having to observe the position of the strings with respect to the handles.
Lastly it is an object of the present invention to construct a tennis racket handle which will increase both indexability and mechanical advantage while minimizing fatigue of the user, with increased indexability being effected by less edges and larger flats, with the larger flats effecting an increased mechanical advantage, and with the softer pallet lessening shock, edge sharpness and fatigue of the user.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be more illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the present invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner but by modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a further understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.